Relearning learning: Ellen Lagemann and the Center for Education and Democracy

By Jenn Smith, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Tuesday, December 04

GREAT BARRINGTON — From Harvard to Bard, Ellen Condliffe Lagemann is looking to help people reshape and rethink the way we look at education.

The former professor and dean of the Harvard University Graduate School came to Bard College of Simon's Rock this fall as a Bard Center Distinguished Fellow.

She is spearheading an initiative known as the Bard Center for Education and Democracy.

"Education is one of the most important public issues in the U.S. today," Lagemann said.

Neither a think tank or research group, she said the new center will develop and encourage more forums and programs and spaces for educational leaders to foster a further exchange between people and ideas at Bard and elsewhere.

"It is premised on the belief that democratic societies must offer citizens literacy in the humanities, arts, and sciences as well as knowledge of, and practice in, the civic arts of discussion and deliberation," wrote Lagemann in her prospectus for the center.

"Translating this belief into effective policy and practice requires constant thought, discussion, and reform," she said.

The new center's activities will pick up work previously done at Simon's Rock to establish the Institute on Early College Pedagogy, which includes holding a seminar on math and science in the spring.

A fellowship program is in the pipeline as well as the establishment of a laboratory for field research and teaching of environmental science in the Hudson/ Housatonic watersheds.

The fellow is currently corresponding with colleagues from Columbia University and the Teachers College Institute of Philosophy and Politics of Education to organize a premiere seminar on the topic of higher education, scheduled for February.

Lagemann said a select group made up of about 25 college presidents, professors, social scientists, educational foundations and journalists will be invited to intend.

"I hope it will enrich the work they're already doing," she said.

The trickle-down effect of these discussions will be contingent on how the participants are engaged.

But Lagemann said that whatever does take place will eventually be disseminated through a book series and the Internet.

"There's much more going on here," she said.